"What shall I do?" he called through the open window; for he felt that in a sense the old lady had hired the whole car, and ought therefore to be consulted before he admitted anybody else.
"Oh, let her get in, by all means," was his passenger's hospitable response; and to Dick's infinite delight, she pulled the bell.
However, when the young lady had taken her seat, and begun gravely fishing in her long knit purse for five cents, the serious side of his situation rather troubled the boy, and for a while he kept his eyes fixed steadily between the horse's ears, as if trying to see how this queer sort of an adventure was going to end, when the sharp ring of the bell over his head caused him to give a very undriver-like jump as he turned to find out what was wanted.
"Here," whispered the old lady, as she slipped the promised crisp bill through the flap, "this is Clayton Street. I'm ever so much obliged, and please stop just as short as you can, for I've only five minutes to walk to the house."
Then she hastened to the rear platform, and almost before the car came to a stand-still she had stepped off, and was hurrying up a side street, the white ribbons of her flowery bonnet streaming out behind.
And what was Dick to do now? He had completed the task intrusted to him, and been paid for it, but he could not very well walk off and leave the car standing there.
But if he should keep on, what would they say to him at the dépôt? and how could he refer to the old lady, when she had forgotten to give him her address? And there was the young lady patiently waiting inside.
Concluding that the finger of duty pointed onward, Dick was about to start the horse, when he heard the jingling of a bell down the street ahead of him. And then it flashed through his mind about the switch, and he realized that here was another car coming on the same track in an opposite direction.
What was to be done? For an instant the boy felt a strong inclination to jump off and run away, but then that would be cowardly; besides, there was the passenger. So he stuck to his post and the brake, and calmly awaited the crisis.
